I’ve been waiting, less than patiently, for months. Any progress? Any change? ANYTHING?
Then, three days ago, DH calls to me from outside, “Honey, you need to come here!” (I can’t tell from his tone if he’s found something really cool in an on-purpose way, or something really cool in a strangely-unexpected way.) I go outside.
He’s not by the main garden bed. He’s not by the compost or pomegranate or mulberry. He’s back by the grills (yes, two) standing in a large puddle of water.
“Did something burst?” I ask.
“No no, I was just watering. Look over there,” he soothes with a nod to the back corner bed.
Before I’m even there I can see what it’s going to be… 
Singing with color, prancing in illuminated drops of water, the broccoli has made broccoli. 
Even the little runt of the bed is basking in the sunlight. 
I hope they’ve survived the freezing rain we had yesterday under their blanket! Tomorrow will warm up enough to uncover them and survey the damage.
plumdirt 
Yeah! I miss broccoli. Waiting for brussels sprouts this year (none as yet). The broccoli flower head doesn’t like freezing rain, though the leaves are pretty resilient. I hope it survived…
Is this your first broccoli batch?
I figured they didn’t, but hopefully the blanket helped. This is my first purple broccoli 🙂
Love those brassicas.
beautiful..it is a purple one? What kind is that? YUM…I love purple:-)
It is! The name escapes me at the moment and I’m traveling for work. I’ll check when I get home 🙂
It’s called Rosalind 🙂
Thank you so much! I just found some seed for it and have to try and grow some this year! I tried that purple sprouting broccoli one year and it just did not work in my space. I have grown purple cauliflower, but it is a too touchy in our climate. I sure hope I can get this purple broccoli to grow like you. Do you have any suggestions? 🙂
I cheated with these ones and purchased the starts from a local nursery. In my climate, they went in a new lasagna bed back in…September, I think. They’ll bolt in another month or two if they’re like the heirloom green ones at all.
I tried an “early purple sprouting” variety a few years back. After nine months, it was decidedly late and ended up as caterpillar food long before it made anything for my plate!
🙂 I found the seed at High Mowing Organic Seeds. My early sprouting did nothing but get tall. I planted it the fall before and it just sat in the following spring doing nothing:-( I love purple food!
Exciting times!
And they survived the sleet under their blanket!
Oh, joy! I’ll bet they lived, didn’t they?
Gonna be SO yummy!
They did! DH uncovered them yesterday for some sunshine and they did just fine 🙂